Open AccessCross‐cultural equivalence of parental ratings of child difficulties during the pandemic: Findings from a six‐site study
Author(s) -
Foley Sarah,
Ronchi Luca,
Lecce Serena,
Feng Xin,
Chan Meingold H. M.,
Hughes Claire
Publication year - 2023
Publication title -
international journal of methods in psychiatric research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.275
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1557-0657
pISSN - 1049-8931
DOI - 10.1002/mpr.1933
Subject(s) - strengths and difficulties questionnaire , psychology , prosocial behavior , psychosocial , measurement invariance , developmental psychology , cross cultural , confirmatory factor analysis , equivalence (formal languages) , cross cultural studies , cultural group selection , cultural diversity , clinical psychology , ethnic group , social psychology , mental health , structural equation modeling , psychiatry , political science , linguistics , statistics , philosophy , mathematics , law
Objectives The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) has been shown to be invariant across informants, developmental stage and settings, but tests of cross‐cultural equivalence are limited to adolescents' self‐reports. The COVID‐19 pandemic makes this gap particularly pertinent, given the need to understand whether distinct government approaches (e.g., school closures) are uniquely associated with variability in children's psychosocial outcomes and the reliance on parents' ratings for young children. Methods Within a Confirmatory Factor Analysis framework, we tested the cross‐cultural measurement invariance of the SDQ across six countries: Australia, China, Italy, Sweden, the United Kingdom and USA, using a sample of 1761 parents of 3‐ to 8‐year‐olds ( M = 5.76, SD = 1.09). Results A five‐factors model showed good fit to the data and partial cross‐cultural scalar invariance. In this sample, Swedish parents reported the fewest peer problems (Cohen's d = 0.950) and the highest prosocial scores (Cohen's d = 0.547), whilst British parents reported the greatest child emotional (Cohen's d = 0.412) and hyperactivity problems (Cohen's d = 0.535). Conclusions The present results indicate that the parent‐version of the SDQ is appropriate for use and comparison across different contexts during the pandemic.